Abbott warns coalition over strong polls

Tony Abbott told a coalition party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday the Liberal and Nationals were in a strong position, but warned that "success can be fleeting and ephemeral”.
Photo: Andrew Meares

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Nationals leader Warren Truss have warned colleagues not to let success in the opinions polls go to their heads.

The coalition has since the 2010 election consistently held a lead over Labor in opinion polls, with Mr Abbott narrowing the gap in the preferred prime minister stakes in recent surveys.

However, in the past week concerns have been raised that frontbenchers, including former Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull, are speaking across portfolios.

And it's been reported Mr Abbott and treasury spokesman Joe Hockey had a heated phone conversation about policy direction.

Mr Abbott told a coalition party room meeting in Canberra on Tuesday the Liberal and Nationals were in a strong position, but warned that "success can be fleeting and ephemeral".

He said it was the opposition's task to lock in its success and win government, admonishing colleagues that because the Gillard Labor government was so fragile the coalition was being "watched like hawks".

Mr Abbott said it was up to coalition MPs to conduct themselves in a way that showed the public that their future was in safe hands under a Liberal-National government.

The Liberal leader, who has spent the past four months traversing the country talking up the effect of the proposed carbon tax, said Australian workers were now "essentially conservative" and suspicious of Labor's alliance with the Greens to form government.

The drift of voter support from Labor to the coalition represented a "tectonic shift", he said.

Mr Truss told the meeting the feeling that the Gillard government had failed was now deeply entrenched in the electorate.

But coalition supporters' main concern was about "self-inflicted wounds" and that the parties might "stuff things up", he said.

Ms Bishop said this was illustrated by the fact that Julia Gillard tipped the West Coast Eagles to beat the Western Bulldogs in the AFL – despite the prime minister being the Bulldogs' No.1 ticket holder.

The main policy issue discussed in the joint party room was cigarette plain packaging.

Mr Abbott said shadow cabinet had yet to decide whether to support the government's legislation.

But he said the final policy would balance getting cigarette smoking rates down with respect for intellectual property rights.

One MP called for a higher price for cigarettes as a way of getting more people to stop smoking, while a second MP said higher prices would merely hurt people on tight budgets.

Coalition MPs also agreed to support budget legislation without amendment.